


And She is the Sun

by DollyPop



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Canon Het Relationship, Canon Related, F/M, Love, References to Shakespeare, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 22:43:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6629953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DollyPop/pseuds/DollyPop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In hindsight, it was all so obvious.</p><p>And Spirit downright gasped, the realization dawning on his face as the words spilled out of him before he could stop them. “Oh my Death, Stein. You’re in love with her.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	And She is the Sun

Spirit didn’t realize it when they were kids. For all his preaching about knowing Stein, and about how easy his best friend was to read, he had never connected the dots.

In hindsight, it was obvious. It was obvious even when they were students at the DWMA, and Stein would actually comb his hair when they had a class with itsy bitsy Marie Mjolnir, but Spirit had been so blind to it all.

He had told himself it was coincidence. Stein’s motto had been that he didn’t understand love, though, at first, Spirit had assumed it to be an excuse so that he didn’t have to listen to Spirit’s laments about Kamiko Rei. But Stein was… _Stein_. He had no reason to lie, so Spirit sort of let it go. Especially after finding out that his best friend was more interested in opening a woman’s (or man’s or otherwise, Spirit isn’t there to judge) ribcage than, er, more delicate parts, Spirit had just assumed that any attraction he’d envisioned between Marie and Stein was just that: an envisioning, a mirage. Marie was certainly interested, but Stein? He was _Stein_. 

And he’d forgotten about it, besides, because after he found out that his best friend cut _him_ open, broke into his torso and rummaged around for his organs, he was far less sympathetic. And Marie had moved to Oceania after Stein made her a Death Scythe, _her_ organs blissfully free from prodding, her crush likely having grown, even from halfway around the world.

Fast forward one decade, one massive fuck up between Spirit and his now ex-wife, and the actual Deathdamn apocalypse, and Spirit was a little more forgiving. And thus, Stein was back in his life, and his love-life, or lack thereof, was under scrutiny once again.

Because, somehow, Stein was easier to read than ever. _Especially_ in regards to Marie.

* * *

Spirit had quit smoking when Kami revealed she was pregnant fourteen years ago, but considering Kami wasn’t part of his life anymore and the world was pretty much ending, he didn’t count it against himself when he went to Stein to bum a cigarette.

And, not for the first time, Spirit wondered why he was friends with an asshole like Stein, considering that, after taking just one damn drag of Stein’s especially noxious death sticks, Spirit was coughing up a lung, probably literally, and all Stein could do was grin and witness his misery with sadistic enjoyment.

“You’re…such a jerk,” Spirit said, grasping his throat as he coughed a few times, contemplating spitting out the the taste in his mouth. Fuck, fourteen years without the damn things had drastically lowered his tolerance. And Stein must have smoked like a chimney when he was off the radar because Spirit never expected such strong cigarettes from the man.

Though, considering he smelled like an ashtray on the best of days, it should have been expected.

“Still smoking menthols?” Stein asked, his grin twisting his stitches.

“Fuck you, there’s nothing wrong with menthols. And _no_. I quit for Maka. When she was born.”

“Back on them, I see.”

Spirit grunted, clearing his throat and shrugging. “Actual armageddon,” he said, as though an excuse. 

“Perhaps buy the candy cigarettes, Spirit. They’d be closer to your taste.”

As Spirit opened his mouth for a rebuttal, all too offended at the implication, he finally detected the sound of heels on tile just before a particularly feminine voice rung out from above his head. Damn. It took him _that_ long to hear the sound of heels? He was getting rusty.

Eyebrows raised and conversation with Stein forgetting in favor of attention for the fairer sex, Spirit tipped his head back, taking note of Marie Mjolnir standing above them. Her long skirt was hiding whatever view he might have been privy to, though he caught a decent glimpse of her cleavage as her forearms leaned on the balcony railing above them while she glanced down.

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you,” she said, and Stein turned around so he could better look at her, lowering his cigarette.

“Ah, Marie,” he replied, and Spirit grinned, setting his hand upon his chest, atop his heart.

“What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,” he said, staring up at her, raising his eyebrows a few times in good cheer.

Marie giggled, rolling her eye. “Hello to you, too, Spirit.”

From beside him, he could swear he felt a twitch of annoyance in his ex-Meister’s wavelength, and Spirit turned to look at Stein, his brows furrowing when he noticed that Stein was letting his precious cigarette burn away from between his fingers.

“Did you need anything, Marie?” Stein asked, paying Spirit no attention. 

At that, Marie’s focus narrowed to Stein, and their eyes locked as she smiled at him. “Just wanted to tell you I’m staying late today. Tsubaki needed some help with an assignment, so I’m sticking around. Do you wanna head home by yourself?”

Stein rolled his cigarette around between his fingers, still making no move to take a drag from it. Spirit’s confusion spiked. That was strange. Usually, he hated to let his nicotine go to waste. The man was an addict, through and through. And Spirit’s understanding didn’t increase when Stein only shook his head at Marie, telling her: “No. I have tests to grade. I’ll wait.”

As Spirit spared a glance up, taking note of Marie’s expression, he could have sworn Marie’s smile could have taken place of the sun, if they ever needed it to. Spirit swore he needed sunglasses. “Alright,” Marie replied, her eye softening as she leaned forward more, further enhancing her cleavage. Still, all her attention was on Stein, her head tilting slightly, letting her blonde hair cascade over her shoulder. “I’ll find you in your office?”

“Mmm,” Stein replied, not breaking their connected gazes, and it seemed to be enough for Marie, because she graced him with a widened smile, her amber eye warm and gleaming. 

“Alright! See you then!” she said, waving goodbye to him and Spirit before she turned, her heels clicking off.

The pause in smoking should have been enough to tip Spirit off. Hell, the fact that Stein seemed to have gone through a change of laundry detergent (er, or actually did laundry in the _first_ place), got a new shirt, started combing his hair, smelled more like soap than an ashtray: all those things should have tipped Spirit off.

But it was when Stein lifted the mostly burned away cigarette to his lips, sucking down the final drag and exhaling it did Spirit _finally_ understand.

Because when Stein expelled the smoke, his expression softened, and his eyes gentle from behind his glasses, the smoke ring was in the shape of a heart instead of in a skull

And Spirit downright gasped, the realization dawning on his face as the words spilled out of him before he could stop them. “Oh my Death. You’re in love with her.”

At that, Stein stopped. Spirit watched him freeze, his entire body going rigid before he turned to face him, Stein’s face seemingly blank, wiped of all the all-too-obvious affection it had previously had. And, had Spirit not witnessed that affection bloom in real time, he might have been fooled. Hell, most people would be fooled.

Unless they knew him. Which Spirit did. And Stein was so, _so_ easy to read. His dopey smile as Marie walked off, his damn heart-shaped smoke ring, his soft expression, his consideration to not smoke around her. And how fast he had let her live with him? The fact that Marie Mjolnir was someone Stein would sooner slaughter himself over than touch with malice? How had Spirit not seen it before?

“You’re in love with her!” he repeated, watching as a flash of nervousness dawned on Stein’s face.

“I don’t understand love-” he started, reiterating that same damn phrase. But unlike during the battle with Medusa, Stein sounded way less convincing, this time.

Perhaps because Marie was _Marie_ , soft and sweet and beautiful, and nothing like a vindictive witch, that it was so much less believable. 

“Bullshit!” Spirit said, and though the smoke ring had dissipated, he would never forget it. “You’re in love with her. Shit, you’ve _been_ in love with her.”

“I-”

“Damn, Stein. All this time, you had us fooled.”

Stein looked away, occupying his hands with fishing a new cigarette out of his pack. “You’re an idiot.”

“No, I’m _right_! If there’s one thing I understand, Stein my man, it’s _love_.”

“I’m _sure_ ,” Stein grumbled, his sarcasm not lost on Spirit, but entirely ignored. Before he could go into some horrifyingly rude jab at Spirit’s own, unfortunately failed love-life, Spirit softened his grin.

“My little meister’s all grown up,” Spirit said, and though Stein scoffed, calling him an idiot once more before occupying his mouth with another cigarette, avoiding having to answer, it was answer enough. Spirit kept grinning, his eyes crinkling from how happy he was.

Franken Stein and Marie Mjolnir.

In hindsight, it was _so_ damn _obvious_. 


End file.
